


Splinters

by intheKnickoftime



Category: Purple Hyacinth - Ephemerys & Sophism (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Kieran is sorry but bad at expressing it, aaaand Lauren is (understandably) skeptical, ahaha I'm so tired, angst and trust issues, at least semi-back, but Lune is back, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25818763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intheKnickoftime/pseuds/intheKnickoftime
Summary: When, Lauren wondered, had she memorized this route to his cave, the shapes of the rooftops flitting by, the dark furl of his jacket in her peripheral vision?She clenched her jaw, unwilling to dwell on it any more.  The remade Lune raced across the rooftops, silent beneath the light of their namesake.  Their trust was still splintered and their deal shoddily rewritten, but they matched each other step for step.
Relationships: Lauren Sinclair & Kieran White, Lauren Sinclair/Kieran White
Comments: 11
Kudos: 76





	Splinters

**Author's Note:**

> gonna post this tonight before I talk myself out of it ahahah

He appeared before her, a piece of shadow she was all too familiar with, sleeves rolled up and bloodstained, sword in hand.

And her pistol in hers.

Limp figures, wrapped in black, were strewn across the floor. The clothes intended for ambush had become their funeral garb, the edges of cloaks lifting halfheartedly in response to a slight breeze. One of Lauren’s bullets had lodged itself in a wooden beam. She found her eyes drawn to it, that glinting pearl of metal visible amid the splinters. It was speckled with blood.

Looking at the blood, on the floor and at her feet and on her bullets, was easier than meeting Kieran’s eyes, though it made her stomach turn to see the destruction she had wrought. Her arms and legs were shaking, a byproduct of the adrenaline, the rush of firing desperately into the darkness as her assailants appeared.

“Lauren?” her partner’s voice came like a jolt, snapping her from her reverie, those blue eyes of his absurdly bright as always as they peered at her from above his mask.

The click of her pistol’s safety felt deafening in the silence. Her mind was racing and her heart was still pounding, but her hands were no longer shaking as she turned it on him.

“What are you doing?” Kieran said, in a tone that suggested he was forcing himself to stay still. A furrow had appeared between his dark brows.

“Where were you?” Lauren demanded, strands of hair falling into her eyes as she stared down the barrel of her gun at him. “You were supposed to meet me here. Instead I found an ambush waiting for me.”

She recalled those moments, full of gunshot and heartbeats and the flashes of opposing weapons, where she had fired into the dark and, almost unwillingly, nearly unconsciously, wished for the security of her partner at her back.

She let herself marvel at the fact that they had been drawn together once more. Their deal had been broken, but now their partnership was one of necessity, a determination to get out of the trap that had been set for them on both sides.

And Kieran had apologized, she remembered, almost as an afterthought.

As the silver of her pistol shone before her and his eyes bored into hers, Lauren recalled his apology- a broken, hasty, nearly  _ desperate  _ thing. 

_ I broke our deal. I’m sorry. _

_ I didn’t think you cared. _

_  
_ _  
_ _ I did- I do. I shouldn’t have hurt you. _

_ No. No, you shouldn’t have. _

Not enough to mend things. Not nearly. But neither had it been a lie.

In any case, it had been enough to give rise to tentative trust, born primarily of need- they hadn’t had much of a choice in it, had they?- but there nonetheless. And yet. 

Those shreds of doubt still lingered, snapping at her heels as she tried to forge on ahead.

“Did you tip them off?” Her grip tightened, knuckles whitening around her gun as though pressing hard enough into the metal would manifest an answer. Her fingers were not on the trigger, but close enough. “How did they know we were coming?”

“I don’t know.” Kieran bit out, his words both soft and sharp in the darkness. “I didn’t- I didn’t sell you out, Lauren.” he gestured to his bloody sword. “I was ambushed as well. I had no idea they would be waiting for us.”

_ Not a lie. _

They stood there for a moment, two bloodied silhouettes, silently assessing the other.

And then Lauren lowered her pistol, clicking the safety back on. Kieran exhaled.

“I don’t blame you for doubting me,” he remarked. She half expected to see a familiar smirk flit across his face- in another time, those words would have been tossed out carelessly, flippantly, and she would have rolled her eyes and turned her back. But his face was solemn, edged in moonlight and shadow, and she found herself stuck on his gaze, like it was a puzzle or a question she had forgotten the answer to.

Lauren stared at him for a moment longer, eyes narrowed, before turning with a sharp whirl of her coat, making for the door. What had been intended as a quick in-and-out reconnaissance mission had gone to hell, and she didn’t want to stand in the company of those shrouded dead for any longer than she had to.

She knew without looking that Kieran was following her- despite his practiced silence, she could almost  _ feel _ the weight of his presence and the burn of his eyes at her back. He fell into step beside her, silence swelling between the two of them. She could tell he had more he wanted to say- and was torn between telling him to spit it out and pointedly maintaining the quiet. This sort of silence between them felt rather like a knife, twisting deeper the longer they refused to talk to each other.

Lauren had found that she reveled in it- Kieran could make her feel the weight of his silence, but she could just as well. Something had changed- he seemed almost wary around her now, and she rather enjoyed observing his discomfort.

They veered into an alley and took to the rooftops almost mechanically. When, Lauren wondered, had she memorized this route to his cave, the shapes of the rooftops flitting by, the dark furl of his jacket in her peripheral vision?

She clenched her jaw, unwilling to dwell on it any more. The remade Lune raced across the rooftops, silent beneath the light of their namesake. Their trust was still splintered and their deal shoddily rewritten, but they matched each other step for step.

\-----

“I wouldn’t sell you out.”

The words were bitten out, low and harsh, but there was no lie in them. Lauren paused, turning to eye him warily. A few strands of scarlet hair had escaped from their bun, dangling like stray tongues of flame. She did not speak, did not dare. 

That silence was back, the knife twisting deeper and sharper than before, edges of mistrust and wariness and rightness and wrongness clashing against each other in her head, splintering in every direction at once.

“I wouldn’t.” Kieran repeated, his back to her, shoulders tense and hands braced on a table. He turned his head the barest bit, a sliver of blue flicking to meet her suspicious glare. “I won’t break our deal again.”

His words were rushed and he sounded almost  _ angry _ at their delivery- with her or himself, she wasn’t sure.  _ She _ was still angry, and half wanted to draw her pistol on him again, and yet. He was being honest.

Lauren nodded, a sharp brief bob of her head. The only acknowledgement she could give.

If he crossed her farther down the line, she always had her gun.

“See that you don’t.”

And then she was gone.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I will continue rooting for Angry!Lauren until the end of time but also wanted to highlight that they're at least. trying to move onward, mostly because they have to? Kieran's got a long way to go to get back in her good graces, though. Wrongfooted fools, the both of them.
> 
> I don't have much to say on this one- just a plot bunny that I indulged and finally deemed fit to be released into the wild. I wrote most of this during ungodly nighttime hours, which may have adversely affected the coherency but aaaaah. I found it fun, and hope you all did too. Or- suitably painful, at least.
> 
> kudos and comments are wonderful- always love hearing from you all <3


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